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Happily ever after…

(Photo: Anne M. Lykkegaard)

CBS student and filmmaker Lina Csillag got fed up with pulling off the perfect façade. Breaking out of the tiresome lifestyle required an existential-like crisis that resulted in an eagerness to express her feelings and reflections visually. Now, her short film about why the perfect life is not so perfect after all has premiered. Watch the film here.

Anne M. Lykkegaard

Journalist

About two years ago, CBS student and filmmaker Lina Csillag took over Solbjerg Plads with a crew of 25 to shoot parts of her short film ‘Happily Perfect.’ The film is about it-girl Victoria who has a perfect life. But maybe it’s not so perfect after all?

“I really want a lot of adolescents to watch this film, as I think the character touches upon issues that are universal. Like the stress and fear of choosing one’s life. Maybe there are too many choices and it can be hard to make head or tail of it,” says Lina Csillag and continues:

“If you haven’t figured out what you want to do in life, it’s easy to feel as though you have to do everything perfectly. I’ve figured out what I want and this allows me to relax and admit that I can’t do everything perfectly.”

Lina Csillag explains that she had what she describes as a sort of existential crisis when she was 19. She was living the ‘perfect’ life where she had to keep up a façade, but it didn’t feel right. It didn’t feel right to aim for the perfect life full of materialistic goods and a nice house on the coast.

“I didn’t deny that I didn’t feel well. Instead I sort of embraced it, and it led me to new places. I started to read different branches of philosophy, and I recognized my own thoughts and didn’t feel so alone. And then I found out that I needed to communicate these feelings and thoughts visually,” she says and explains that she couldn’t make the same film today.

“I’m not in the same place anymore, so I wouldn’t have been able to make the film today. But I’m glad I did it. I’m glad that I reached for the opportunity to make this film back then,” she says.

Lina Csillag hopes that with the premiere of ‘Happily Perfect’, people of the same age and even younger will stop and reflect.

“We need to take a break and start to ask questions about the way we live. Especially if it feels like it’s not right. Explain to yourself why you’re living the life you do, and whether you want to live it differently. If you have an answer to the ‘why’, you can decide whether to continue the same path or change direction,” she says.